Amazing Facts on dairy products to beat cancer. All things need to know

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“I went straight back to my oncologist, who prescribed letrozole [an oestrogen suppressor]. But I also went back on my strict diet, as well as walking regularly and doing meditation.” After a few months, her cancer was again in remission.
All of which may sound too good to be true, but Plant, 69, is no crackpot. Professor of geochemistry at Imperial College London, where she specialises in environmental carcinogens, she is highly regarded in her field, having been awarded a CBE in 1997 for her services to earth science; and her approach to cancer is supported by some eminent scientists. Her latest book, co-written with Mustafa Djamgoz, professor of cancer biology at Imperial, has a foreword from Prof Sir Graeme Catto, president of the College of Medicine, who describes its findings as “illuminating… even, at times, shocking” but all backed up by scientific research.
Prof Plant, however, is not dismissive of conventional cancer treatment, having had, at various times, a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and irradiation of her ovaries to induce menopause.

She believes new and “wonderful” anti-cancer treatments are vital – but so, she argues, is a dairy-free diet, as well as other diet and lifestyle measures, such as stress reduction. Much of the advice in the new book, Beat Cancer, chimes with current guidance on how to reduce cancer risk, such as eating more plant food and less red meat, salt, sugar and fat; taking regular exercise and reducing stress.

She also advises going organic, using complementary therapies where there is good evidence they help recovery, and avoiding potential pollutants such as pesticides.
But her far more radical message is that a diet that totally excludes dairy products – milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt – can be successfully used to help stop the disease “in its tracks”, by depriving cancer cells of the conditions they need to grow.

“We have all been brought up with the idea that milk is good for you,” says Prof Plant. “But there is evidence now that the growth factors and hormones it contains are not just risky for breast cancer, but also other hormone-related cancers, of the prostate, testicles and ovary.”
Going dairy-free, she says, may also help patients with colorectal cancer, lymphoma and throat (but not lung) cancer. “Cows’ milk is good for calves – but not for us,” she adds.

With the relatively new science of epigenetics, scientists now understand that cancer-causing genes may not become active unless particular conditions arise that switch them on – and if those conditions change, they may be switched off. “This means that what you eat can have an impact at the genetic level,” says Prof Plant.

For those with cancer or at high risk of the disease, Prof Plant advocates cutting out all dairy
Cancer cells, scientists now believe, are hypersensitive to chemical messenger proteins called growth factors, as well as (in the case of hormone- dependent cancers) hormones such as oestrogen. Produced by our own bodies, growth factors perform vital tasks such as making cells grow. Other substances called binding proteins normally control them, including their potential impact on cancer cells. The risk of cancer arises when we have abnormally high levels of “unbound” growth factors (or hormones) circulating in our blood.

This can happen, say Profs Plant and Djamgoz, because the same growth factors and hormones as we produce are found in food that comes from animals, providing the very “fertiliser” that cancer cells need. Casein, the main protein in cows’ milk, is considered most dangerous. One eminent US nutritional scientist, Prof Colin Campbell at Cornell University, argues that it should be regarded just like oestrogen – as a leading carcinogen.
“Cow’s milk [organic or otherwise] has been shown to contain 35 different hormones and 11 growth factors,” says Prof Plant. High circulating levels of one such growth factor in milk, called IGF-1, is now strongly linked to the development of many cancers. Research has also found that “unbound” IGF levels are lower in vegans than in both meat-eaters and other vegetarians.

“This means that a vegan diet is lower in cancer-promoting molecules and higher in the binding proteins that reduce the action of these molecules,” she argues.
A second growth factor implicated in cancer spread is VEGF, found at high levels in cancer patients and a target for some newer anti-cancer drugs. Prof Plant points out that in the udders of cows with mastitis, VEGF is present to help fight infection. Mastitis is thought to affect nearly half of all cows in Britain. “There are increasing numbers of papers about high levels of VEGF in milk, particularly from high- yielding cattle breeds typical of modern industrialised dairy units.
“It seems likely that if a cancer patient is consuming dairy products, they are also consuming VEGF, especially if the milk originated from cows with mastitis. That is not helping to defeat their illness – and it may be making things worse.”

She is particularly worried about the fashion for high- protein diets, pointing out that there is evidence that too much protein generally – particularly from animals – is “at best unhelpful and at worst dangerous to those at risk of cancer”.
A second theory around diet concerns the levels of acid in our bodies. Prof Plant explains that if we consume too much acid-generating food, our bodies become acidic – an environment in which cancer cells can flourish. The foods highest in generating acid (not, as might be assumed, citrus fruit) include eggs, meat, fish and dairy – with cheese the most acid generating-food of all.

For those with cancer or at high risk of the disease, Prof Plant advocates, among other things, cutting out all dairy – from cows, sheep and goats, and whether organic or not. “If you have active cancer, there are no half-measures here.”
She also recommends limiting consumption of other animal protein, such as meat, fish and eggs, replacing this with vegetable protein such as soya – the main source of protein, she points out, in a traditional, rural Chinese diet.

But if the evidence that cutting out dairy can successfully “beat cancer” is that strong, why haven’t we been told?
Prof Plant puts it down to vested interests – the dairy industry represents about 12 per cent of Britain’s GDP – and medical conservatism: oncologists, she says, “might be excellent at conventional treatments but are not experts in nutritional biochemistry”. The big cancer charities, for their part, place too much emphasis on drug development. As a result, “if you rely solely on the cancer prevention advice from government, charities, health professionals or the media, you will be missing out on vital and potentially life- saving information.”

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